Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office in 2000 until 2008. He also served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent East from the 1987 General Election to 2001.

In April 2016, Ken Livingstone was suspended from the Labour Party for having made allegedly 'anti-semitic' remarks. In May, a petition to "reinstate Ken Livingstone immediately!" was signed by more than 3,000 people within a week.[1] In May 2018, Ken Livingstone resigned from the Labour Party and joined RT's Sputnik:

"Not that he’s giving up politics following his resignation from Labour – indeed, to paraphrase Mr Benn, you could say he’s given up his party membership to spend more time with his politics."[2]

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NCC tribunal

In March 2017, before the start of a National Constitutional Committee (NCC) hearing into his suspension, Livingstone reiterated the fact that Hitler supported Zionism because the Nazi government signed the Haavara Agreement, which facilitated the relocation of Jews to Palestine in 1933:

“Hitler didn’t just sign the deal. The SS set up training camps so that German Jews who were going to go there could be trained to cope with a very different sort of country when they got there. When the Zionist movement asked, would the Nazi government stop a Jewish rabbi doing their sermons in Yiddish and make them do it in Hebrew, he agreed to that.

“He passed a law saying the Zionist flag and the Swastika were the only flags that could be flown in Germany. An awful lot. Of course, they started selling Mauser pistols to the underground Jewish army. So you had right up until the start of the second world war real collaboration.”[3]

Jews rally in support

On 30 March 2017, over 30 leading Jewish members of the Labour Party wrote to the NCC:

“We believe it would be a travesty if the Labour Party were to find Ken Livingstone guilty of conduct prejudicial or detrimental to the Party. As Jews, we are appalled that such a serious issue as antisemitism is being used in this cynical and manipulative way. It is harmful to Jewish people that false charges of antisemitism are so casually thrown around. We would urge the Party not to make such a damaging mistake.”

Commenting, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, a Jewish Labour Party member and witness for Ken Livingstone at the hearing, said:

“Ken Livingstone is being pilloried because he is a prominent figure on the left of the Labour Party who has actively defended it from attacks based on false allegations of antisemitism. As a Jewish person who supports Palestinian human rights, I reject the notion that criticism of Israel and Zionism is necessarily antisemitic. Those who allege antisemitism against Ken Livingstone discredit the term. His track record in public office is a clear testament to his commitment to supporting the Jewish community and fighting racism in all its forms, including antisemitism.”

Ken Livingstone responded:

“I’d like to thank all the Jewish Party members who have signed this letter in my support – the reality is that I am being attacked by the right-wing of the Labour Party because I support Palestinian human rights and strongly back our Leader Jeremy Corbyn.”[5]

"Go catch some real criminals"

In February 2015, Ken Livingstone was instructed to stop filming in London's Westfield shopping centre. He told police:

"Nazi apologist" and "bigot"

On 28 April 2016, Labour MP John Mann publicly accosted Ken Livingstone over his comments defending a tweet by Muslim MP Naz Shah when he claimed that Hitler "was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews". Mann accused Livingstone of being a "Nazi apologist" and a "fucking disgrace".[7] Following this incident, Mann was reprimanded by Labour's chief whip Rosie Winterton, with party spokesperson saying that she had told Mann that it is "completely inappropriate for Labour members of Parliament to be involved in very public rows on the television".[8] Ken Livingstone was suspended from the Labour party in relation to his earlier comments.[9]

On an unrelated issue, six months earlier, Mann had repeatedly called Livingstone a "bigot" in a radio phone-in, following a controversy over Livingstone remarking that MP Kevan Jones was "obviously very depressed and disturbed".[10]

Following his outburst at Livingstone, an online petition accusing Mann of "appallingly unprofessional and toxic behaviour" and calling for him to be subject to a "disciplinary procedure" gathered over 21,000 signatures in seven days.[11]

After three years of screaming headlines, the truth about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party is finally revealed: just 0.08 percent of Labour’s half-a-million members have said or tweeted something anti-Semitic

The Labour Party's departing General Secretary Iain McNicol has done everything possible to delay or prevent the implementation of the Chakrabarti Inquiry Report which needs to be the central focus of our campaigning right now, if we are going to win justice for the many suspended and excluded by Labour, not just for the few.

I know John McDonnell and Ken Livingstone. And I've known Jeremy Corbyn for 35 years when he first became the MP for Islington North and I was leader of Islington Council in local government. I know what they're about: they want the party to be a movement.

Norman G. Finkelstein is clear: "It’s time to put a stop to this periodic charade, because it ends up besmirching the victims of the Nazi holocaust, diverting from the real suffering of the Palestinian people, and poisoning relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities. You just had an antisemitism hysteria last year, and it was a farce. And now again? Another inquiry? Another investigation? No."